Outmanned and under the gun, the Banff Bears managed another impressive comeback to win their eighth consecutive Calgary Rugby Union Div. 3 matchup, this one against the Foothills Lions.

The Bears showed up in Cochrane on a windy, smoky Saturday afternoon with just 14 players as injuries kept a number of regulars out of the lineup — and were reduced to 13 with a head injury claiming Andre Lapierre early in the second half — but still managed to pull out a 27-24 victory to improve to 8-1 on the season and secure a playoff spot.

Liam Leung’s dive between the posts, followed by Matt Soukas’s successful drop-kick convert at 35 minutes of the second half would prove the difference in this game.

Leung was joined on the scoresheet by Jeremy Woodcock, Duncan Thorburn, Max Lozeman and Nick Hale. Soukas, standing in for the injured Elliot Smith when it came to the kicking duties, was 1-for-5 on converts.

Three of the four Lions’ majors came from Jordan Smith, Lee Rehak and Oluwamuginwa Abolaring. Rehak and Abolaring were good on making the converts following their scores.

The Lions, a combination of players from the Okotoks-based Foothills club and the Cochrane-based Bow Valley Grizzlies, had the numbers and a much more daunting looking forward pack. As for the Bears, it looked much like a reserve squad this day and could have been forgiven if they weren’t their opponent’s match.

“We knew we were coming down here one player short, and we knew it was going to be tough,” said Bears head coach Mark Hooper. “The boys responded.”

The Bears changed up their game plan with the personnel in use Saturday, going for more of a kicking game and chasing the ball down rather than holding onto possession of the ball and grinding it out.

“We just put little kicks behind them and chase it down … we were one short so that’s they way we wanted to handle it: little box kicks and let (the Lions) make mistakes and come at them with a flat line.”

It did take some time for the game to gain traction. Nervous errors by both sides led to some early giveaways during scoring drives.

Banff would open the scoring 20 minutes in with Woodcock carrying the ball over the line following a 60-metre dash by Hale to within diving distance of the goal.

Then Thorburn made it 10-0 at 36 minutes when he ran down a punt into the Lions end zone.

The Lions would finally get on the board at 39 minutes when Smith bulldogged his way across the scoring line from 10 metres out making it 10-5 at the break.

It was a convincing lead for the Bears and Hooper knew it.

“I said to them, I can’t flip a switch and make your passion start burning, make that engine go,” said Hooper. “I know we beat them in one half but we were bad. We need to get our heads up and switch on.”

It didn’t come right away. To begin the second half, the Lions outscored the Bears two to one in majors to take a 19-15 lead. That set up a dramatic last 15 minutes.

Hale would put the Bears back in front when he ran onto a Soukas punt 30 metres out and weaved his way into the end zone. Then Leung with time nearly out, knifed his way through the heart of the Lions’ defence to score between the posts. Soukas’s convert would make it 27-19.

The Lions would get a stoppage time score but had the clock run out on them on their next possession when they fumbled the ball forward while still deep in their own half.

The Banff Rugby Club sits in fourth place at 35 points with three games remaining, all three are at home, with first place a real possibility. The Bears host first-place The Canucks (7-3 for 38 points) — a team they have already beaten this season — this coming Saturday, Aug. 25, followed by third-place Lethbridge (7-2 for 37 points) on Saturday, Sept. 8. There is also a make-up game still to be scheduled against the Lions (3-5-1) after June’s contest was washed out due to an unplayable pitch. Game times for the two scheduled games are 1:45 p.m. at the Banff Recreation Grounds.